Making a strong pitch for inclusion of puppetry in Indian school curriculum, renowned US educational puppeteer Carol Sterling feels that such a move would help improve the social, emotional, intellectual and creative skills of children, especially those who are differently-challenged.

Many countries including US and Middle East are making use of the art form to communicate with children and get them involved in learning, she said here on Sunday on the sidelines of the international conference on 'Recent Trends in Special Education for Young Persons With Special Needs'.

"Puppetry is an essential educational tool to help children, especially those with special needs to improve their social, emotional and intellectual skills," Sterling said in an interview.

"And the most important thing is that it helps them with their creativity skills. So, puppetry should be included and absolutely be part of the curriculum," she said.

Noting that puppetry was one of the best possible ways to grab someone's attention, the 79-year-old educationalist also said its a way of getting involved in the lives of children with special needs in a 'personal way'.

"It helps you to ask questions…to greet…and communicate in a better way…especially in the case of special education children, because, puppetry makes them smile. When you smile, you open up your heart to learning," Sterling, who began her career as an art teacher said.

Pointing out the reasons to use puppetry as teaching aid for differently abled children, she said puppets can catch their attention than anything else.

"As long as I can catch their attention, I can teach them something new…which is going to give them a happier life," she said.

When asked if making puppets was an expensive affair, Sterling, who travels across the world, including India, to conduct workshops and classes on the art, replied in the negative.

She said she creates puppets out of rags, newspapers, scrap cloths, plastic and other recycled materials which are inexpensive.

"I just make something from something inexpensive. And it gives me an opportunity to communicate with children. The creative aspect of making something out of nothing will stimulate the child's imagination also," she said.

Sterling also presented a paper titled 'Using Puppetry for Intervention & Teaching Learning Materials' in the conference, which was organised to mark the silver jubilee of DARE School, a TATA group-supported special school here.